Fordyce Spots on Lips: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

Fordyce spots on lips are of small size and elevated white or yellow colored spots or papules, which usually appear over the vermilion border of one’s lips especially on the upper lip.

Fordyce spots constitute the variant of the glands responsible for producing sebum i.e. sebaceous glands and they usually remain present without any follicle of hair. These spots are easily visible when skin of an individual stretches or when a person enters the puberty phase of life.

Fordyce spots usually take place because of the natural oil present in the skin, also referred as sebum. Sebaceous glands, which do not have hair to trap this oil, cause spots.. In a majority of cases, such glands open inside a hair follicle leading to the secretion of oil up towards the hair shaft.

On the other side, in case of the fordyce spots on lips, there does not exist any medium to discharge secretion of natural body oil and in turn, lead to formation of bumps. However, fordyce spots on lips do not lead to any pain or involve any symptom associated with pus. Hence, one cannot categorize them as skin infection.

Following are the common symptoms of fordyce spots on lips:

• Small sizes of bumps ranging from minimum 0.2mm to up to 3mm are seen.
• Color of lips converted to either pink or yellow
• Fordyce spots on lips are easily identifiable when you stretch your lips
• Fordyce spots on lips resembles with rice of various small grains

In a few cases, you will find them as single spots, while commonly they remain available in 50 or more than 50 clusters.

Now, let us look on the various treatments available to treat fordyce spots on lips:

Surgical Procedures for Fordyce Spots on Lips

1. Punch Excision Treatment for Fordyce Spots on Lips

   In case of punch excision for treating fordyce spots on lips, a trained medical surgeon or a dermatologist carries out the procedure by applying a local anesthesia. The surgical procedure involves application of a machine to make wide holes ranging between 1mm and 2mm width in the patient’s skin to target the respective spots on lips. In this way, dermatologists remove individual granules of Fordyce and then, stitch each hole. This method involves relatively less chance of repetition, but has a significant chance of occurring scars.

2. Cauterization Treatment for Fordyce Spots on Lips

   Cauterization for fordyce spots on lips, also referred as diathermy or Electrodessication procedure performed by any dermatologist requires application of a numbing cream or a local anesthesia. After this, doctor heats a Hyfrecator or a fine probe type instrument, while applying it to different spots for burning them away. This is relatively quick and less expensive surgical method for treating fordyce spots on lips, as patients have to attend a single session to complete with the procedure.

3. Laser Vaporization Treatment for Fordyce Spots on Lips

   Many dermatologists apply the method of laser vaporization to eliminate fordyce spots on lips. In this case, focused light emitted from the beam of laser will react with tissues of the patient’s skin to burn away various abnormal skin lesions with the application of extremely high temperature. Heat will later on seal the patients’ skin across the wound to reduce both scar and pain. However, individuals may obtain the best results by choosing CO2 laser vaporization. Reason for this is that CO2 laser is a precise one, i.e. up to the degree of 0.1mm. Especially, CO2 laser suits perfectly to deal with small granules across the lips and the mouth where you want to get clean results.

4. PDT (Photodynamic Therapy) for Fordyce Spots on Lips Treatment

   PDT (Photodynamic Therapy) technique for treating fordyce spots on lips involves the application of a suitable photosensitizing agent taken orally in the form of a drug. Once the agent concentrates on various abnormal cells of your lips, laser is applied in to spots to react with oxygen leading to burning away of targeted cells.

Also Read:

• Are Fordyce Spots Contagious, Know the Causes, Symptoms, Treatment of Fordyce Spots
• How Do You Get Fordyce Spots on Penis & Ways to Get Rid of It?